So far we’ve covered the physical aspects, we’ve covered the functional aspects, and we’ve also covered the aesthetics, and lastly, you can imagine, all of these things together affects our psychological well-being or our self-esteem. And this is also been studied. If only 80% of the population can wear both an upper and lower denture, and you’re going out in public and you’re only wearing one of two dentures because it’s not comfortable or not staying in place— it’s got to have an impact. It’s like going out half dressed, so this has an impact in a variety of different ways.
Fear of Social Settings
Number one, a lot of people have fear of social situations. They don’t like to go out in public or they certainly don’t like to go out in restaurants. Going to a restaurant means sometimes the denture is going to fall out or come out. It might move around or food gets caught underneath—they have to run off to the washroom to get the food out, so they just don’t like doing that, and sometimes the restaurants don’t offer the type of foods they can actually chew.
Difficulty Speaking
It can also effect their ability to speak clearly because there’s something foreign in your mouth. We adapt as well as well as we can but sometimes it’s not quite the same speaking with a bunch of plastic in your mouth compared to having natural teeth. Dentures can start to move around sometimes and make noises and clicking sounds. I had one person say that their grandchildren asked them, “Grandma, how come your teeth are making a clicking sound every time you talk and once in a while you hear a click, click, click, click, click?” She couldn’t hear it, but of course, whoever she was talking to could.
Dentures can be Dangerous!
And this was kind of rather humorous! Apparently, it’s dangerous to drive with dentures. I don’t know what language that is on the bottom of the slide, someone had sent this to me. Obviously, this is an indication of either the quality of the roads or the quality of the dentures—or both. And lastly, this video tape, which someone else sent me, is rather humorous. It just shows a pitfalls of skydiving with dentures, and the need for a spare parachute.
